In 2014, Canterbury Museum developed an exhibition called T-shirts Unfolding. The exhibition showcased almost 1,000 T-shirts from around the world from the collection of Australian T-shirt collector and graphic artist, Eddie Zammitt.

T-shirts Unfolding considered the people, design and popular culture of the T-shirt as the most commonly worn article of clothing in the world. Key to the exhibition was encouraging discussion around the role of T-shirts in popular culture and challenging perceptions of the humble T-shirt. These boundaries were pushed with the inclusion of several challenging works, including a T-shirt which had been banned by the New Zealand Chief Censor. This paper discusses the process of negotiating display of the T-shirts and responses from the Christchurch community and the Museum